© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a meeting with Colombia’s Ambassador to Venezuela Milton Rengifo (not pictured), at Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, Venezuela August 16, 2023. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File Photo
2/2
By Julia Symmes Cobb and Kiana Wilburg
KINGSTOWN, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Reuters) -Guyana and Venezuela are committed to ensuring their region remains peaceful, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said on Thursday during meetings with his Venezuelan counterpart President Nicolas Maduro, amid high tensions over a dispute involving a potentially oil-rich border area.
The two leaders met at the airport in Kingstown, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, alongside representatives from CARICOM, the Caribbean political and economic union, Brazil, the United Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Disagreements over the 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) jungle region of Esequibo has run for decades, but Venezuela revived its claim, including to offshore areas, in recent years after major oil and gas discoveries.
The dispute is before the International Court of Justice, though a final ruling could be years away. Voters in Venezuela this month rejected the court’s jurisdiction and backed the creation of a new state in a referendum.
Guyana has questioned the vote’s turn-out and said its land border is not up for discussion, while political analysts in Caracas have said the vote was an attempt by Maduro to gauge support for his government ahead of a 2024 presidential election, and not a prelude to invasion.Maduro said last week he would authorize oil exploration in the Esequibo, drawing Ali’s ire as the latter sought to reassure investors with projects already approved by the Guyanese government, including Exxon Mobil (NYSE:) and soon-to-be partner Chevron (NYSE:) , that their investments are safe.
“I made it very clear that Guyana has all the right to… approve of and facilitate any development, any investment, any partnership, any trading, any collaboration, any cooperation, to issue any license and the granting of any concession within our territorial space and within our sovereign space,” Ali said.
Ali wore a bracelet showing a map of Guyana that includes the Esequibo and reiterated the dispute must be solved through the ICJ.
“Guyana is not the aggressor, Guyana is not seeking war, but Guyana reserves the right to work with all our partners to ensure the defense of our country,” he added. “Both parties committed to ensuring the region remains a zone of peace.”
The meetings are ongoing and Maduro has not yet made any statement.
Offshore areas are responsible for the entirety of oil production in Guyana, whose economy is booming thanks to output, which is expected to triple to more than 1.2 million barrels per day by 2027.
“We are not going anywhere — our focus remains on developing the resources efficiently and responsibly, per our agreement with the Guyanese government,” Exxon said this week, adding claims by Maduro’s government that it was involved in financing a plot to undermine the referendum are “ridiculous and baseless.”